couvade
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Related to couvade: embryopathy
cou·vade
(ko͞o-väd′)n.
A practice in certain cultures in which the husband of a woman in labor takes to his bed as though he were bearing the child.
[French, from Old French, from couver, to incubate, hatch, from Latin cubāre, to lie down on.]
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
couvade
(kuːˈvɑːd; French kuvad)n
(Anthropology & Ethnology) anthropol a custom in certain cultures of treating the husband of a woman giving birth as if he were bearing the child
[C19: from French, from couver to hatch, from Latin cubāre to lie down]
Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014
cou•vade
(kuˈvɑd)n.
a practice among some peoples, as the Basques, in which an expectant father takes to bed in an enactment of the birth and subjects himself to various pregnancy taboos.
[1860–65; < French (now obsolete), literally, a hatching, sitting on eggs =couv(er) to hatch (< Latin cubāre to lie down) + -ade -ade1; compare covey]
Random House Kernerman Webster's College Dictionary, © 2010 K Dictionaries Ltd. Copyright 2005, 1997, 1991 by Random House, Inc. All rights reserved.
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Noun | 1. | couvade - a custom among some peoples whereby the husband of a pregnant wife is put to bed at the time of bearing the child |
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